“Everybody is well behaved,” Renton said, adding police had met with event organizers to ensure public safety. “We put a plan together.”

Teens demanded more resources, including full-time support workers at school and youth mental health beds at the Woodstock Hospital.

Students said they wanted to be heard.

“Our kids have already shown they know how to make some noise. How much louder do you need them to turn it up?” asked Gail Bradfield-Evraire, a local advocate who helped to ­co-ordinate the walkout.

Their voices travelled much farther than Museum Square.

The fallout of the walkout reached Queen’s Park, where MPP Teresa Armstrong (NDP – London-Fanshawe) asked Ontario Deputy Premier Deb Mathews to provide more support services for the Woodstock area.

“The crisis isn’t just in Woodstock, Oxford County, it’s throughout this province,” said Armstrong, an outspoken advocate for mental health.

“When children are telling you that the government is failing them, when they’re actually standing up as a collective group and walking out of classroom(s) to make a point . . . We need to pay attention and we need to stand up for our youth.”

That’s exactly why Ron Bailey went to Museum Square. His daughter, Mandy, died by suicide at the end of February.

He wouldn’t normally support a walkout, Bailey said. But this was different.

“These kids are living it. They have some of the answers . . . They need to be heard, they need to be listened to,” he said.

“I’m so proud of these students to have the will and fortitude to stand up for this.”

Downing said she does it for her sister.

“Kristi was my best friend, and I know that she needed help,” Downing said.

Ron Bailey of Woodstock, Ont., shows a picture of his daughter Mandy, who took her own life on Feb. 29, 2016, one of five suicides in Woodstock that prompted a student walkout Tuesday asking for more help for mental health issues on Tuesday June 7, 2016. (Mike Hensen/Postmedia Network)